There are three main forms of the development process you’ll find yourself dealing with: black and white negative (black and white development process), color negative (C-41 process) and color reversal or slide film (E6 process), where the finished products are slides or diapositives. In this article, we’ll mostly be exploring the black and white process. I strongly recommend beginning home developing with black and white film rolls, especially 35mm, as it is dramatically less complicated for beginners and requires less equipment to develop.

Unlike with color developing (both C41 and E6), in which essentially all color developers work largely the same way, there is a myriad of developers for black and white film, and it can be difficult to decipher which one will work best for you.

There are both liquid and power developers available, as well as “solvent” (fine-grain) and “non-solvent” (high-acutance) developers. There are minimal differences between liquid and powder; powder can be stored for longer periods and you can mix only part of the chemistry together for only as much developer as required. Deciding on which developer you use is largely a matter of personal taste and dependent on what you want out of your photographs.

Solvent developers such as ID-11, D76, Perceptol, Microphen and XTOL, when mixed at stock or a weak dilution, provide fine grain and are forgiving enough to cover a wide range of exposures on a single roll of film. Non-solvent developers such as Rodinal, HC-110, FX-1 and PMK (Pyro), meanwhile, give increased grain but an increase in sharpness.

To complicate things further, most fine-grain developers can be diluted at various strengths to increase sharpness, although this often comes at the cost of grain. Again, this is likely down to personal taste. Diluting provides more working solution for more film, but stock can usually be re-used up to ten times with increased development time.

Personally, I largely use ID-11 or D76 (they are mostly accepted as identical developers) diluted to 1+1 with Kodak Tri-X film for a trade-off between grain and acutance, and use Ilford Perceptol and Microphen at stock for slow (ISO100 or under) films or fast (ISO 800+) films, respectively. Other recommended developers for beginners are Ilfotec DD-X, Ilfosol 3, or Diafine. Both ID-11 and D76 are widely regarded as industry standards and are the most accepting of a wide variety of development times and temperatures.

From my own experience, most different types of fixer and stop bath will work similarly. I generally use Ilford Rapid Fixer as instructed on the packaging and have had no problems with this.

There are a few safety precautions you need to take before starting this development process. Ensure that you wear rubber gloves at all times, and that you’re carrying out the developing in a well-ventilated area. If you feel faint, dizzy or otherwise unwell, make sure to take a break or leave the room. The liquids used in these photographs are for demonstrative purposes, but you should always make sure to use rubber gloves when handling potentially hazardous chemicals.

To start, you’re going to need to mix your chemistry. For powder developers, you’ll need to prepare the developer according to the instructions, likely involving filling a beaker to a set level (eg. 800ml) before pouring in developer parts A and B and filling it up with water to the level of solution you need. As mentioned, if you’re planning on using dilute solution, you’ll need to take that into account too. If you’re using powder, you’ll need to wait for your working solution to come back down to room temperature, usually 20°C/68°F or as close as possible, which is generally the working temperature for most black and white film. Measure this using your digital thermometer.

For both liquid developer as well as most forms of fixer, you’ll have to dilute your solution according to instructions. For developing, you’ll need to use only a certain amount of solution, which your developing tank will usually specify. For mine, 375ml for 35mm/590 for 120 film/750ml for 35mm x2 (meaning two rolls of 35mm film) are specified.